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Currently the gaming world struggles with something called “GamerGate,” which involves two groups of fans. There are those who want gaming to be more socially responsible, and those who want it to be more like 4chan.
Sound familiar? Some thing we should create the same division in metal:
Heavy metal fans have been targets for scorn and derision for decades. The metal community is supposed to be a place where misfits and outcasts can find shelter in the face of that intolerance. When you throw around bigoted slurs, whether you know it or not, you’re eroding the community we’re all supposed to be a part of. More importantly, you’re reinforcing the prejudices of every mouth-breathing homophobe within ear or eye shot, and you’re very possibly harming another human being for no reason. Keep that in mind the next time you’re tempted to call someone a fa* or describe something you don’t like as gay. Hopefully you’ll think twice about the language you use in the future. But if you still don’t care, please do everyone a favor and keep your stupid comments to yourself.
Personally, I wish to fall into neither camps. The first camp wants to offend no one and make sure that humanity all gets along so that heavy metal can be accepted by mainstream society. The second camp wants to keep us as perpetual outsiders, which is fine, but they want to do so by appealing to the lowest denominator among us. I have a problem with that, too, because it seems to me that being the opposite of a wrong thing is often to make a different version of that wrong on the level of method and not goal. Or rather, by removing an actual goal, you create a lack of goal, into which method fills the gap.
That’s a subtle argument. It also takes some subtlety to understand why the offend-no-one argument is wrong. At a gut level, we are metalheads: we do not stand for speech codes, social morality and being nice to people. We specialize in saying thing as we find them and if that offends someone, too bad. We also are some of the last defenders of a way of life outside of society, where you can think what you want and say what you want and not care what other people think you should think. Someone else really nailed the biggest reason for avoiding the Nanny People: they are a lynch mob, witch hunt, high school bully, and nagging aunt all wrapped up into one, and what they do is create destruction and conformity in their wake:
A moral panic doesn’t have any relation to reason. It’s a mob expression of rage against an issue that threatens the social order, usually relating to the violation of some cultural taboo. There exists a long American tradition of moral panics, from Prohibition in the 1920s, to the Red Scare of the 1950s, and most egregiously the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. People were jailed and lives ruined over obviously false accusations made by children trying to please psychiatrists and other adult authority figures.
You can see there is a range of opinion about this. I pitch an unusual idea to you today: do not take a side. Do not join the Louts and do not join the Nannies. Instead, trust nature. There has always been a diversity of opinion within metal ranging from the anarchist to the totalitarian and back again. People are going to have their own opinions and they will not get along. There is no “we.” Metal is a refutation of the idea that we can all get along. Trying to make us all get along will create more problems than it solves and might also foster a nasty backlash that will turn metal into a permanently alienated battleground.
Tags: gamergate, louts, metalgate, nanny state, sjws
Who the heck prosecutes homosexuals in the West? All these PC fags should see how homosexuals are treated on Islamic lands to understand how privileged homos are on this side of the world.
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What these precious snowflakes really want is what all the sheeple crave for: the removal of high standards.
In metal there will always be those fans who promote the best and scorn the weak.
That was the goal of the ANUS site back in 1999 when there was still hope that metal might return to a healthy ground for high standard European warlike sonic art; by 2014 I guess we all know that will never happen.
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So what is the goal now? I’ve always thought that the only goal remaining now was to preserve and promote the best metal from 1970-1996 and scorn the rest.
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Those who live their lives according to high standards eventually remove themselves from being metalheads in a social context. They passionately enjoy the music in privacy while being active in becoming a better versions of themselves, as a consequence of this they become alien to the average metalhead.
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The average metalhead does not feel the need to push himself out of mediocrity, and the poser metalhead is a faggot and needs to be call upon if only for his faggotness alone.
I need to quote you. You express my exact same feelings. Although I think that in individual bands there is some hope for quality music. I am on a constant look out for Condor and Zealotry.
But I specially empathize with your feeling regarding other metalheads and removing yourself from metal in a social context.
Zealotry indeed is interesting.
Interesting but unless they can go a step above where they currently are it simply won’t make the cut in the bigger picture, as general lack of quality releases is a ‘bigger picture’ -type problem. Here’s hoping :)
And I consider Condor to be of a much more enduring nature.
Zealotry is interesting on the outside, and it flows really nicely. It satisfies a lot of my musical cravings while creating atmosphere and always moving forward. But it stops there. I think Zealotry’s limitation in their first album and probably their following output is that it is too consciously METAL. It seems to me that the music WANTS to be metal. But some of the best moments in the album for me occur when it can break away and be Metal without forcing the issue and bringing about a strong atmosphere, as they do in the title track. The song “The Unmaking” gained a lot of popularity amongst their listeners but it seems to me that it is mostly because of the fact that it uses three guitars, some synths and a bell. The second album will probably show us more exploration and expansion of their found style.
With Condor, I’ve listened to it once and again and again and never got tired of it. The pacing of the music is much more thought/felt out and the music seems to breath with life. Also, its details are much more subtle, it takes time to discover it. Additionally, I HAVE to state that although at first Nadia appears to be a little bit disparate in the sources of its expression (From Doom to traditional Heavy Metal, simple melodic solos that almost become pentatonic) its unity becomes more and more apparent as you become more acquainted with the details. The songs are strongly linked together despite the diversity of expression. This unity is also hammered throughout the album as a whole.
Condor Nadia’s evocative power much stronger as well. It is important to read the lyrics if one wants to get a complete picture of what the album is trying to tell. Once you do, and if you understand the subject matter behind them, the essence of album becomes manifest and, along with the music, presents a very precise idea enveloped in rich aural descriptions.
Yeah definitely, as you become more familiar with the vocabulary Condor uses, the feeling of it being constructed with disparate parts fades. Always the sign of a powerful voice and in this case the expression of a powerful album. It didnt really get the attention from listeners here that I was hoping it would. Understandable because the aesthetic is a little more fairytale and bright than a lot of extreme metal, but disappointing because it really is very good. As far as recent new metal is concerned only Innumerable Forms is outright superior I think. Imaginative metal.
Good stuff, thanks for the recommendation. At least a good first impression.
Thanks to both of you for the kind words, and to trystero as well for a great recommendation. I’m really enjoying Innumerable Forms.
It’s encouraging to see that there are people out there who find lasting value in our work.
Cheers.
I here you fenrir! But where others might take offence (in-a-social-context), I make a point of never getting offended (even when I instinctually do). Hence I’ll talk to anyone, and keep talking too :)
This leads nowhere, if not to slow death. This is, in fact, an absence of a goal.
If one doesn’t like the “metal” of today he could at least try to play his own version of what he sees as good metal.
Yet it would most probably be some kind of reenactment, “historical reconstruction”. (There’s no principal difference between guys who put on medieval chain mails and brandish fake broadswords, and guys who emulate, say, SF Bay Area bands in the 2010s).
There could be a better way.
Rebuild your country’s industry and support big projects. The more people you have who are engaged in useful activity and know at least a little about the physical world and how things are made and how they work, the less space there is left for fashion and blogosphere hivebuzz. They will only compose & play music if they really have an irresistible internal (or cosmic) impulse to do that; they will have no time to play just to show off. They will only buy music which will be relevant for the rest of their life; not some trendy transient crap.
Metal, by a number of parameters, is traditional music. Get rid of the consumer society and you’ll have your metal back. Or maybe not exactly metal but some kind of traditional music of the future.
So tell me, oh wise one, how do we push ourselves out of medioctiry?
This is the first non-retarded commentary on this “issue” I’ve read from any side.
Welcome to DMU! Please feel free to use our complimentary terry-cloth robes, and don’t forget to make use of our fully-equipped exercize facility and sauna. Just dial 666 on the guest phone at any time and our courtesy staff will be happy to fulfill your needs! Stay brootal and remember; no smoking in your room and don’t feed the trolls!
More seriously, what “issue” do you refer to? Troo metal vs. False metal? Or does it have to do with this Gamergate thing? I’ve been picking up that word as I do my usual internet scans but don’t have a clue what it means so I would appreciate some guidance here.
My sentiments exactly! and it’s all relative at the end of the day anyway. I mean, just cause some idiot prone to temper tantrums doesn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not a worthwhile piece of art. But anyway it’s their loss right?
Here we go…it is all relative….just like your relativity……go back to logic school.
I don’t get why gamers feel like they belong to a community either- rather than a target demographic.
When your persona only exists in a social context, it is shaped by what you consume. Remove the consumables, and the social context fractures; what’s left is the ghost of a persona. Like your old myspace profile; no one looks at it, it does not respond or react to information; it may as well not exist. Without games, what would a gamer use for a persona? They would have to become honest with themselves and responsible for their decisions.
This observation doesn’t apply exclusively to “gamers”, of course.
The same could be said for 99% of the metal community, that for the record labels, they are just a demographic. After all, it’s “just music” right? With games as well as metal there are the troo and the cvlt. There are different genres and subdivisions in each and different ways to exploit the wallet of each’s fan base. There are many in gaming that take the craft seriously as an art form and, as a medium, there is opportunity for legitimate social commentary although video games are much less likely than metal to criticize and deconstruct society. Actually in today’s metal scene Im not sure that thatis trooo. Anyway, I believe it is the fantasy element that the two mediums share most, particularly RPGs of high Tolkienesque fantasy or broootal Howard-inspired fantasy.or mind-fucking Lovecraft insanity horror.
Metal….Gamers….Trollers…these are not real communitites! You want a community, join a Church or get involved with local politics.
“The metal community, specifically the online metal community, can be an especially harsh place for homosexuals”
“Using homosexual slurs as insults, even if it’s aimed at someone who’s not gay themselves, reinforces the ridiculous idea that homosexuality is inherently bad.”
Lets make metal about social groups rather than about powerful music.
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In other words, the problem is that there are people that don’t think like me and they hurt my feelings with insults. These insults on their own are not the problem but they suggest that you know something I don’t or that maybe my taste in music is deficient, and I won’t tolerate that!
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That’s why metal should not be about the music and its underlying spirit but about socialization because only then can I use crowdist methods to manipulate and coherce participants into kumbaya morality.
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I really don’t care about fags but since I can sense the word carries hierarchical social power that is still effective to point out that art is not subjective and it’s independent of social clubs, I will rally against gender discrimination to achieve my goal which is: to destroy high standards so no one will notice my intellectual and spiritual inferiority.
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So… you should be ashamed of yourself to point out that I’m a faggot for liking Alcest and Deafhaven.
I’m personally offended that you space your paragraphs with a “.”.
Seriously I’m down with everything you said but what the fuck man.
Nana told me never talk about religion, sex or politics and you’ll be fine. Now that I’m older (and Nana’s older too but no longer comments on this sick world) I realise the world should have listened to Nana.
Let me help you out of the chair Nana. Let me touch you, let me feel, ah! ?.. It is time for tea, it is time again.
Nana is still one of the few people that doesn’t cause my brain to flood with hatred at the mere thought. I know a few other true souls that avoided sell-out. Bands like Emperor on the other hand make me sick in that they almost always appear completely disconnected from their triumphant past they can go to hell! Still I’m really conflicted cause they must have been true at some point to make “In the Nightside Eclipse”.
Thou Shalt Suffer was cool too. Death metal demos, not the Wagnerian video game soundtrack from 1999.
Exactly! it’s so pathetic! but many of us here are more intelligent than that and can see through such narrow and outmoded worldviews. I mean, come on..
On a better note:
Still waiting for Deathmetal.org to get that Rigor Mortis promo so they can review the newest Rigor Mortis album. In the meantime these two awesome videos from the band. One is a 1988 rehearsal and the other is a live gig recording. Enjoy!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGymygWm2EE
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68SiLWkDNQs
I think we can do without, the album is poor I am afraid. It has a few halfway worthwhile moments here and there but they are few and far between and punctuated with pretty pathetic modern-metal tinged speed metal. The style is a simplified version of Rigor Mortis vs. The Earth songwriting with a strong blues and rock music tilt. I cant think of any reason to listen to the album again, especially over previous Rigor Mortis greatness. R.I.P. Mike Scaccia, a broken genius of the kind that characterizes so many metal personalities. Life fast, die young. Quorthon, Cliff Burton, Jeff hanneman, and the more pathetic living ones like Richard Brunelle (hey interview this dude already, he is easy to find and I am sure he would be quite willing to talk).
Some of the recent posters here of late have been utterly disgusting and make me feel ashamed of ever having gotten into metal. I just can’t believe that in 2014 the scene, the fans are really no further evolved than the type of simple-mindedness and bigotry one would expect from an NS forum.
Maybe you should stop visiting the site or at least stop reading the comments.
This is practically the last near-mainstream place on the clearnet that hasn’t been infested with bleeding heart social justice crusaders. They (you) don’t belong among radical ideologies like those discussed here. Nobody is responsible for making you feel included and safe.
This is because we have always had a policy of free speech. However, our users seem to enjoy working against us to try to keep us small and forgotten by abusing this policy.
The point of free speech is that you can express any argument you need to. It has been widely misinterpreted by the courts and society to mean the ability to act like an angry nitwit. On the contrary, the original intent was for the citizen to be able to advance any political argument necessary without being prevented from saying so.
You may notice there is nothing there about using ethnic slurs, anti-gay slurs, etc. and yet our users choose to celebrate this privilege by doing so. That in turn makes us look like we endorse such things, when our view point is closer to the one expressed in this article.
We have struggled with this problem for years. How to allow freedom without becoming a nanny to oversee and remove bratty abuses? The answer is that preference will go toward mainstream sites that either censor or (as is more popular now) allow their users to drown out such comments. Since that will keep us in obscurity, our writers will go on to do other things, as they have in the past, for this very reason.
That seems to be what our users want, or they wouldn’t work against us, would they?
Consider this a last warning to the user community here.
look
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i’m
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lord mosher !
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kumbaya
Maybe the users emply such blatant anti-mainstream sentiments (“faggot”, “gay”) as a tactic to scare off potential mainstreamers. That’s because they’re not like us. Pure ideology, like pure metal, must be defended from social justice crusaders, feminists, and all others who would infiltrate and dismantle from within. And, true believers will go to any length to defend that which has meaning to them. It’s hard enough to find meaning in life; you must expect people to take extreme measures when they are able to draw meaning (however slight in the “broad scheme” of “things”) from even a blog comment section.
If that’s not what you want, then prohibit it. You’re the boss, after all. We (I) use this space the way we (I) want because it’s allowed. Besides that, we’re more valuable than a mainstream audience one hundred times our volume. We actually listen and take note. We’re the ones, if anybody, that are receptive to what you (and your staff, obviously) have to say. If you think the site will do better without that, then by all means, bring down the iron fist of justice. We will mourn and then move on. I’ll create somewhere myself if I can’t find a place that is dedicated to anti-censorship at all costs. Yes, it would attract morons but that’s what moderators are for. Ban the idiots based on their idiocy, not their ideals and views. Free speech doens’t imply freedom from the consequence of speech.
tl;dr do it faggot. Jk ily Mr. Stevens.
“Besides that, we’re more valuable than a mainstream audience one hundred times our volume. We actually listen and take note. We’re the ones, if anybody, that are receptive to what you (and your staff, obviously) have to say.”
No. This site’s audience is mediocre. Not only are the comments usually unintelligent, semi-coherent bloviation; those who make them take it as a given entitlement that the one who runs this site will continue to do it eternally, regardless of any appropriate reciprocation.
Not even Metal Archives users behave like that.
And the rest of the comments are from Negative Nancys like this guy! Chin up, pal, and get to your point. Your comment basically said “nuh-uh”.
If you found my previous post opaque, I very much doubt whether I could make it understandable to you.
Doubtless you, trystero, and your ilk will be as surprised when the same fate that befell the Interzone occurs on the front page.
I do hope that after that occurs, some of the genuine ANUS sensibility will return and this abysmal failure of synthesizing disingenuous reviews of mainstream material and testosterone rich pseudo-elitist “old school” blubbering that is the deathmetal.org experiment will be admitted to have been a mistake.
You sound like another among the legions of small minded people who never understood the first sentence of what Prozac ever said.
Pseudo elitism? How is it pseudo? It may be that even half the audience of this site is composed of extreme anarchists who don’t know much about art, I actually agree with that. But to say that DMU has been a failed experiment only goes a long way to show your lack of understanding.
Testosterone rich blubbering? really? I think you’re one of those readers who reads “attitude” before content. You care more about tone of voice than about what’s actually being said and WHY. You don’t care WHY, you make up any ridiculous reason and set it up as a straw man against the writers of this website to try and discredit what they say. Like you, there are many. Try to understand and take a reasonable approach and you might stand out and actually get somewhere.
Believe me, I know what the writers of this website think and why they write the way they do.
The operating method of this site for the last years has been to temporize its reaction to mediocrity in order to avoid insulting the sensibilities of those who are unfamiliar with the site.
However, I do hope that the disingenuous quality of this approach would be evident to you (pl), as it surely is to the writers, which is why articles such as SMR still exist as the shallow bastions of reaction against the sort of thing the site half-halfheartedly reviews the other six days of the week.
It has attempted to pander to two audiences: The first, the Metal Archives crowd; and the second, the sort of people who will use the term “true metal” un-ironically.
It’s my submission that neither of these are worth having.
Ok, so back to the point. What you are saying is that the DMU staff have pandered to the sort of audience they themselves are now rejecting or complaining about?
Opaque? You essentially told me, “actually you’re wrong, DMU posters are worthless” (or so implied by putting us on a lower level than MA users, and if you know who I am then you know how little I and others think of MA generally so that was just an underhanded insult).
I just asked you to get to a point if you have one. The exchange was clearer than crystal. To say something so general and unhelpful and then insist that I’m just not smart enough to understand what you’re saying is the ultimate form of shitposting.
I don’t see how it was underhanded. Whatever else may be said about them, Metal Archives users certainly do contribute to the documentation of metal, via user edits and submissions to the encyclopedia.
DMU users, on the other hand, do nothing but bitch in the comments section.
If I were a writer, I know which audience I’d rather have.
The users you get are the users you get. You can tailor a message for a particular audience but you cant forcibly create the audience you want for your message. Fighting your audience is a guaranteed path to failure. I am not sure how you arrive at your particular skewed view of the matter but it is very strange. Also, why use an unfamiliar pseudonym if you are commenting in good faith?
The metal-archives comment is unwarranted, the majority of the users do not contribute to the archives section. That section is most akin to Audiofile which has significant user contributions. A good number of the posts are garbage, and not from some elitist point of view; just objectively bad posts. Of course, I dont think there is anything wrong with metal-archives users in particular anyway beyond what you would expect from a forum where a large number of young adult males congregate.
I’m not confused, and haven’t been. You seem to be convinced that you have some message or opinion to voice but there is nothing to your words. I was anticipating a purpose to your sly condescension but now it is clear that you have nothing useful or even interesting to say. Since we are all clear on the issue now, would you like me to straight-up call you a whining faggot or just ignore you?
Actually, I’ll go ahead and take both options, you whining faggot, and will begin ignoring your posts after I point out that the only bitching taking place in the 50+ comments on this article came from you and is highly irrelevant regarding the article topic.
I think it’s good we have a topic for people to hash out general disagreements.
It helps us get closer to some issues/ideas:
What is the purpose of this site?
What should a metalhead do in AD 2014?
What standard of behavior do we want?
What direction do we take on political topics?
With the help of yourself and other articulate posters here, ground could be made on these topics. $0.02, which is now totally worthless.
Dear Person
I dont know why I merit a shout-out in your comment. I comment on this site as an ordinary user, the metacommentary is over and has been for a while. If you have particular grievances with me I would be glad to address them.
I can tell you I wouldnt be surprised at all though.
The community here is way more divided than it needs to be and taking a fixed ideological stance doesn’t help but only adds to the division. I’ll at least admit to adding a bit of extra salt to anything I consume no matter where it comes from, and stirring up hornets nests is just a relic from my smackless childhood (or maybe smacked too much?) but in truth there is more closet leftism/pseudo-intellectualism in metal now than the alternative to it, and it very much exists in this place too (current “issues” = no good releases these days = obviously metal has nothing to say [historical fact = metal was never leftist]). If not that, then why the general over-sensitivity to everything and anything that’s a issue for the mainsteamers? I say this knowing full well where my own boundaries are (and that if they’re not pushed I won’t push back ;)).
Drive out one side and it gets replaced by the other side. There`s really no way to win. The question ultimately is: Which side is the lesser evil?
Or this simple plan:
1. Keep conversation here civil; make arguments, not slurs.
2. Join a political organization and be active.
3. Exclude any music or ideas that are insufficient.
We will always be about #3: mediocrity is our nemesis. I would like #1 to appear more here, and for people to take abundant anger/energy to where it can actually be applied, which is in politics.
i’ll do #2.
i’ll grow a funny mustache. raise my right arm and rally for self preservation. the superiority of the midget race.
Some of my best friends are midgets.
There are no useful politic-oriented groups that aren’t explicitly terror-oriented that are going to do a modicum of good.
This is my observation, and I’m open to being proven wrong.
Politics itself is a lost cause; the rules are set from the get-go to inhibit any sort of utility.
Either you rule politics, or it loses you. The above strikes me as an excuse/justification, not forward reasoning. Food for thought or at least a snack for your consideration :)
Rule politics in what way? Manipulation and promises of handouts? That’s how people rule politics. It’s how the US (I don’t speak for the entire Western world) became what it is now. Politics = pandering.
Forward reasoning? Kill politicians, prove to the followers that their leaders have no power other than a silver tongue. What comes after that? Apolitical chaos. Is that preferable? How could anyone say? Is there a chance that it will be better than our current politic-ruled society? Yes. Is there a chance that society will improve with more politicking? Not in the way I want to see.
I don’t know… you think there’s any chance of a job in a post-apocalyptic regime for a true-metaller such as myself ?? !
Not at all, you and your ideas are being steadily phased out by politicians. Kill or be killed.
Hey Richard, I had a massive argument with Dad the other day after he made some desperate comment which (providing I’m not just being paranoid) hinted and implied certain things I didn’t like the sound of – so then I asked him just to say what he means and for once put all his cards on the table, then he really flipped out and basically said the music and those people I talk to on the computer have warped my mind, that a personalize everything now and that I should knock the nazi crap off ASAP if I ever want to hold down a job etc . I told him “you are so wrong Dad” and “you so don’t understand me right now!” etc. Later on I heard my auntie say she thinks I’m so hopeless that in all probability the only job I could ever do would be as some B-grade actor or Nazi germany prison gaurd or something, but anyway.
I have worked nothing but C-grade jobs and have survived on my own for 10 years. So what’s the big deal about jobs? The less money you make, the fewer taxes you have to pay, and the less you contribute to the Murikan infrastructure, which is ideal since it is a staggering, idiot behemoth. Fuck jobs. Make music (or something else which will warp people’s minds and inspire them to drop out of Murikan “culture”). Do work that supports yourself (and your family, obviously, if you make babies and are trying to keep a woman) and forget what previous generations expect of you. Learn from their mistakes and heed their advice.
Brett Stevens: are you going to review the upcoming At the Gates album?
Dude everybody knows at the Gates is lame man, just like Carcas man. Rigor mortis needs to be reviewed urgently dude.
I just want to read the bashing!
Everyone on here has Duning-Kruger effect.
Please shut down the comment section.
…yes, this thought often runs through my head.
I would like decorum.
“Whiny faggot” convinces no one.
We are not the mainstream metal audience that currently calls itself (without merit) “underground.” You name the sites, whatever, we all know what I am speaking of here.
We should behave like a higher standard toward which we want to rise.
Further, the point of this site is to participate in the current metal scene, finding the best in it if we can. Retreating to armchairs to say “it all sucks” and throw pizza crusts at the scene helps nobody (although I admit it is tempting).
If you hate the way we do stuff, make suggestions / volunteer / send money or dildos.
Also, I hereby declare this site pro-homosexual, pro-woman, pro-Jewish, pro-African-American, pro-eugenics and pro-Satan. I hope that offends everyone “equally” and they rage so hard they end up in a Greek bathhouse chatting to some charming young man named Kiki.
Well that much I agree with Brett. One can never trust what they think or better assume to be the reality of a situation. And for that reason, very little gets me fired up any more, even feelings such as hate or anger are more just lock-step auto-pilot reactionary processes in the end. The only thing that I can never understand is how to predict the reaction to the reaction, it is a process within which I am seemingly lost and without hope. But in that you will notice some metal-heads tend to arrogantly sigh or alternately give the cold should as part of their instinctive reaction while others fly into a desperate rage. Both are alike in that they are forms of shit, albeit originating in different species of animal. And yet still I have a great fondness of the old bands such Hellhammer, Voivod, Posssessed etc
For the record, the whiny faggot remark was just a concise way of saying exactly what I mean. If nothing else, I’ll never complain without pointing out exactly what is wrong and a way it could be potentially rectified.
If you do need volunteers, then by all means, proclaim so. Surely I’m not the only reader who could take a little time out of their daily smoking weed/masturbation routine to bear some of the burden of maintaining a website.
“What is the purpose of this site?”
Its purpose is for you and a revolving door of volunteers to try to put the best possible spin on the truly horrific state of contemporary metal, while as nicely as you can pointing out that it’s psychically damaging and fit only for sandalwearers.
There’s only so many times that that article can be written, however; and its been written too many times.
“What should a metalhead do in AD 2014?”
A “metalhead” should rejoice at the abundance of contemporary albums for him to listen to. It’s my submission that anyone who defines himself by his receipt is just an accomplice to a marketing fraud, such as “gamers”.
What this site should have attempted to cultivate and explore was the instinctual-to-philosophical drive to create power-based art, in which realms metal is included. This was a strength of ANUS.
The occasional SMR is not good enough.
“What standard of behavior do we want?”
Well, your metal sites have always had terrible comments sections filled with mediocre trolls (tiny midget exempted).
Regardless of anything else, you first need to admit free speech has failed. Then something can be constructed from the ruins.
“What direction do we take on political topics?”
Stop fleeing from the ANUS shadow in relation to this.
Interviewing and reviewing someone like Rob Darken should not be forbidden simply because he does not hold friendly views on those of the Mosaic persuasion. That sort of semi-censorship should not be acceptable to the person who wrote the Metal FAQ and does a disservice to the concept that metal is an art form.
I have more to write about this, but that’s my starting position.
There is no ban on interviewing Rob Darken. We’d love to do it.
Well, that’s an improvement at least.
(a la “Graveland rule”)
Nothing is off the table if it is good. Boris and Arghoslent are excluded for the same reason.
Would you be willing to add NS bands to the front page rotation?
We are politics agnostic, so any “NS bands” that are suggested had better be good.
As it is, we have had Burzum, Graveland, Darkthrone, Infester, Incantation, Morbid Angel, Absurd, Emperor and Mayhem in rotation for years despite their statements endorsing genocide, fascism, national socialism and the like, much as we have kept Napalm Death, Cryptic Slaughter and Agathocles around despite them making statements that endorse a regime that killed over 100 million people and left most of the world in ruins, not to mention threatened all of us with its nuclear aggression. There’s a reason we haven’t listed Drudkh, Grand Belial’s Key, and other NS-y bands which is 100% unrelated to their politics, in the same way our rejection of Cannibal Corpse and Opeth has nothing to do with their politics.
Suggest any bands you want, but they will get the famous sadistic treatment, so if that makes you weep, expect all of us here to do nothing but enjoy the sweet taste of your tears. YOU ARE ALL VERY WEAK!
The problem with your explanation is that even recent albums from Graveland, Absurd, Totenburg, Hate Forest, GBK, etc are superior to most of what is reviewed on the front page.
If you riposte with “write an article on them and we’ll run it”, I’ll remind you that from the very beginning of my submissions to this site there was an implicit ban on anything to the right of Burzum, which was allowed only due to its popularity.
This takes us back to the problem of disingenuity. I suspect you don’t wish to review these bands because the sort of people who run academic conferences on sexism in metal would no longer wish to respond to interviews.
These fall below our threshold objectively. The Ildjarn release was good however.
One thing to keep in mind, black metal fans especially, is that dialing it back to national socialism is in fact adopting a less-extreme viewpoint than underground metal adopted.
Underground metal, like Nietzsche, sought a restoration of a natural order. In this order, the weak are killed and eaten, there is no brotherhood, constant conflict is the norm, morality is a laugh and society is a parasite. Instead, we return to the formless will that rules nature, which would be a reign of the sword and destruction of the useless.
Black metal in particular advocated a culling of humanity unlike anything that even Stalin could dream of. This is a philosophy, not politics, that says humanity has become overgrown on the drug called civilization and has as a result drifted into total uselessness and is blighting the planet with too many people.
It is beyond right and left because it is a rejection of the framework in which those exist. Yes, it probably sees gender studies as pretense, but also the quest to preserve a race as the same. It rewards only those who rise above the rest and then exterminate them with the prejudice not of an angry jack-booted ideologue but of a hawk feasting on helpless, cute, cuddly, innocent and delicious mice.
In natural order there are packs, prides, swarms etc. Families and nests.
So yes, some kind of brotherhood and “nationalism” is absolutely natural.
A wish for constant and total conflict is rather childish and incompatible with reality.
No wonder the quantity of metalheads that actually “rose above the rest and exterminated them” strives for zero. =)
Fuck yeah man any old shit by Graveland you can count me in brother!
brett when you say “Retreating to armchairs to say “it all sucks”, are u referring to lord mosher?
No, not referring to any one or any group in particular.
GamerGate, although it started on 4chan, is a movement that is opposes corrupt and collusion in gaming journalism, especially in regards to independent development. It is an apolitical movement that has nothing to do with the product or ideas spread of the corruption, but rather the mechanisms that allow them to be. Just search the hashtag, the majority of people support this idea. Many on the other side have threatened the careers of those that side with GamerGate, so the stakes could never be higher. While I find your piece interesting from the perspective of an underground versus regulated nanny state, I feel that it buys into a lot of the propaganda that GamerGate is some anti-feminist movement, which it genuinely isn’t.
I don’t even know what a hashtag is. Sounds like a load of bullshit anyway. I love video games as much as the next guy but I don’t even play anything that came out after 1998 or so, so this topic is pretty irrelevant to anyone except those who actually care about what video games are being produced in this day and age (read: 14-year-olds).
GamerGate is mostly people who want to play video games without hearing a bunch of art majors constantly whine about some forced notion of ‘inclusiveness’ as a means of pandering to the cult of social justice. It’s been wildly successful because all you really have to do to oust such halfwits is disagree with them and blow off their attempts to play the victim when they inevitably lose their shit over it.
I think something similar would work wonders for heavy metal. These insufferable halfwits who insist on bringing up *core/djent as if they’re even relevant, are an equally annoying bunch and function similar to the social justice crowd. They’re so fucking thin skinned, that all you need to do to make them flip their shit is point out the fact that neither ‘core nor djent are metal beyond some superficial resemblance due to both genres employing similar instruments.
GamerGate offers a useful lesson for dealing with smug progressives; disagree, sit back, and watch them make asses of themselves.
You made me dig up my copy of Skeptic’s Apocolypse.
Yeah,I used to blast that one along with similar fun speed/power metal outfits like Powerlord – The Awakening (1986) and Wrath – Fit of Anger (1986).
Never heard either of ’em. I’ll check both out though. Thanks.
On the contrary, the only blows that work are outright ridicule. You need to show people exactly how they are making asses of themselves. Nerds are as intimately familiar with this world as SJW types so combat was more fair.
guys please, enough fighting. I have an unbelievable headache. Pool party tonight at mine and little midget’s place, you’re ALL invited whether true or false, NS or liberal, gay or traditional, pro or anti, racist or racialist, odalist or satanist, scientific or religious, norse or asian etc just relax a little (but not too much). Cause when the sun sits just right and you’re with good people and in a good headspace, well you might even have an epiphany. And if you can’t swim that well, well hey there guy, shit.. I’ll teach you! but better relax coz first up’s playing the all time best Slayer albums!
Which would u rather be, an edgy metalsite with 200 fans or a crypto edgy site with 200 000 fans
Yo get back to me on that on hipsters
I bet u hate bn called hipsters more thn faggots
“One thing to keep in mind, black metal fans especially, is that dialing it back to national socialism is in fact adopting a less-extreme viewpoint than underground metal adopted.”
And this should be an indication that attempting to take seriously all the most extreme attitudes of black metal is fucking ridiculous. This place has never understood the meaning of subtlety. It is an online backwater, an anonymous circle-jerk for views that are so brutally simple and obtuse that *they can only be upheld by a ever-renewing and changing population of alienated and confused young men, online and anonymously – with no accountability and no selection process to filter out bullshit*. Nihilism indeed.
This is a gross misunderstanding, I dont know how people constantly arrive at this view or variations thereof. The black metal view is not more extreme in the sense of being worse than Nazis… the realization and worldview offered operates at a deeper level. Do you see this website or any of its users advocating murder or the burning of churches?
I whole-heartedly agree with this:
“What this site should have attempted to cultivate and explore was the instinctual-to-philosophical drive to create power-based art, in which realms metal is included. This was a strength of ANUS.”
Drop the fucking ridiculous alienated-cum-autistic rantings of a few (musically talented but obviously young and extreme( Norwegian teenagers processed through the filter of the fucking uni-bomber and attempt to support and inspire enduring culture.
There are ELEMENTS of the so-called ‘philosophy’ (though this is offensive to really examined, actual philosophies) of black-metal that are worthy of being upheld. Many are transgressive, but please, stop short of genocidal rantings.
This is your fucking idol??
Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski (/kəˈzɪnski/ ka-ZIN-skee, or ka-CHIN-skee; Polish: Kaczyński, pronounced [kaˈt͡ʂɨȷ̃skʲi]; born May 22, 1942), also known as the “Unabomber”, is an American mathematician and serial murderer. He is known for his wide-ranging social critiques, which opposed industrialization and modern technology while advancing a nature-centered form of anarchism.[2][3][4] Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against people involved with modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, ultimately killing a total of three people and injuring 23 others.
When this should be:
Ludwig van Beethoven (Listeni/ˈlʊdvɪɡ væn ˈbeɪˌtoʊvən/; German: [ˈluːtvɪç fan ˈbeːtˌhoˑfn̩] ( listen); baptised 17 December 1770[1] – 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas, and 16 string quartets. He also composed other chamber music, choral works (including the celebrated Missa solemnis), and songs.
Take Kaczynskis good ideas and discard the rest. Sure, he is a loon, but he had some valid things to say. This is an overreaction.
Cmd. Stevens:
Not only the ideal of bellum omnium contra omnes, culling the society, absence of brotherhood is not natural or realistic and is, rather, a young hurt maximalist’s re-action; it is also not really extreme if we look at the Western world of today.
It is OK to hate society, religion, morality, any standards, your own country, your own people.
It is NOT OK to be a nazi and you can even be jailed for playing in a nazi band. NS requires balls. Playing black metal in the West never required any.
As for activity, church burnings are easier in doing and escaping responsibility for than attacking/killing foreigners.
But in general, almost any idea becomes, ow!, too extreme at the moment you actually start practising what you preach.
Excuse me if i sound too proletarian.
I am very glad someone brought this up.
Every system of belief is extremism, because in order to implement it, one must beat down and exclude the other systems.
Even in the so-called “adversarial” systems, the tendency is to exclude any who do not believe in a perpetual non-choice, but this seems to be a device for one system prevailing over others.
Thus we take them all to their extremes. Conservatism becomes feudalism, liberalism becomes Communism.
With the (neo?) Nazis, I think the main problem is one of accuracy. They aim for a hybrid between the two extremes, which is unstable, and in order to enforce it, rely too heavily on a race-cult with a de-emphasis on culture and morality. I see them as too reactionary for their own good, which results in a reactivity that promotes signaling behavior of the rejection of liberal democratic morality into a dangerous place. Mass murder of non-ethnic-natives offends the fundamental morality of their own people.
While yes, their beliefs are persecuted, there may be mixed reasons for this, some illegitimate — and some reflecting an honest fear of more barbarity.
Sips tea.
I wasn’t defending nazis. There are some things that i share with them, others i don’t.
Yes, they are mostly reactive.
((Italian) fascism was an attempt to design something active, as far as i understand. To mobilize the collective will of a nation.)
Yet hybrids are probably the future.
It is likely that some kind of synthesis of ideas will be necessary to propel humanity’s evolution. Those nations speaking synthetic languages – Chinese, Hindus, Japanese, Russians etc. – are more likely to invent a succesful hybrid (as opposed to westerners speaking analytic languages). Germans have tried this hard a couple of times lately – see the specific German statist conservatism of the XIX c., or their pre-WW2 Conservative Revolution movement – but will hardly ever succeed. Unless they throw out their German and relearn Sanskrit, of corpse.
Metal, by the way, is a hybrid. A conservative-anarchist combination, as, a.f.a.i.r., YOU put it once.
…Which is fascist, actually. =)
“It is OK to hate society, religion, morality, any standards, your own country, your own people. It is NOT OK to be a nazi and you can even be jailed for playing in a nazi band. NS requires balls. Playing black metal in the West never required any.”
Agreed.
Liberals love the immature, anarchic, individualistic, atheistic rantings of the Norwegian black mettalers. They just wish the latter would stop killing homosexuals under ski jumps.
There is value in so-called immaturity. I have found that the extreme rejection of childishness is a feature of adolescents and perma-adolescents as opposed to developed adults. Being a bit of a kid is essential.
if u guys had to chose five albums to make u look elite amongst the ANUS readership, which ones would u choose?
1.-
2.-
3.-
4.-
5.-
and…
when no one’s looking and you’re free of judgment, which 5 albums would u list as your ultimate real favorites?
1.-
2.-
3.-
4.-
5.-
Interesting exercise, but here’s one that woke me up: What do you actually listen to on a regular basis?
There are some albums of which one never tires… and they often do not reflect “pure” artistic objectives.
Then there are other albums that are “old friends” for special occasions, like Nespithe or Hvis Lyset Tar Oss.
Some I throw on at a regular interval:
1. Slayer – South of Heaven
2. Massacra – Final Holocaust
3. Sepultura – Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation
4. Immortal – Diabolical Full Moon Mysticism
5. Incantation – Onward to Golgotha
I get lost in these every time.
I definitely think there’s a distinction between “best” and “favorite.” I’d have to put some real time into thinking up what I’d consider the “best” overall since my tastes have changed significantly since the last time I even thought about trying to compile a list like that.
Perennial favorites:
1. Celtic Frost – Morbid Tales/Emperor’s Return
2. Slayer – Hell Awaits
3. Coven – Blessed Is the Black
4. Kraftwerk – Trans Europa Express
5. Death In June – Symbols and Clouds
I don’t know what the ANUSites consider elite so I’m not going to fill out that list but it would definitely include Krallice.
Anyway, as for my most-listened-to albums;
1. Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai – G3 Live 1998i
2. Jeff Beck – Blow by Blow
3. Ulver – Perdition City
4. King Crimson – In the Court of the Crimson King
5. Allan Holdsworth – Metal Fatigue
That’s probably accurate enough for the last ten years. Prior to that there would have been a lot more sk8 punk.
If talking about metal, Brett’s list below is pretty good but DFM is a chore to get through so I would replace it with Ritual of Infinity and switch out the Sepultura with None So Vile or Blasphemy Made Flesh. SoH I could take or leave but really would rather hear Reign in Blood.
How about your top five, mini-man? Have you checked out the Fat Wreck Chords comp “Short Songs for Short People”? You’d probably be into it.
Metal is somewhat analogous to traditional ritual music in that it:
* avoids ego-drama, speaks on topics higher than the Self;
* refers heavily to works of previous generations;
* doesn’t have its own theory and is learned by newcomes by means of imbuing them with its spirit;
* doesn’t strive for uniqueness of every new song but strives for its propriety, its compliance with spirit/aesthetic;
* is intense all the time, without soft verses / heavy choruses;
* isn’t anchored to tonality (= is easily transposable);
* is melody-driven;
* returns to unison;
* uses parallel fifths, fourths and octaves extensively, at times against the rules of Enlightenment-born European music theory.
I’d say metal as a whole is (the only?) one of the groans of discontent of a civilization sinking in routine, monotony and safety. It sounds somewhat like the mainstream music of the epochs when there was challenge, danger and conquest.
Start new conquests or massive projects, seek new challenge, and your mainstream music might become good again. You (today’s metalheads) won’t need to be dissidents.
Great little list 1349, I agree whole-heartedly with your evaluation. As much as I love this site I think it has often overstated the relationship of heavy metal to classical music, whereas I think it’s relationship with folk/traditional music (particularly of the European variant) is much more evident and important, and often heavily overlooked here.
I love Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert to death, but their music was meant mostly for urban aristocrats and bourgeois during the extremely decadent 18th and 19th centuries, and that’s not a moot point. Though both styles often deal with the eternal, this being where they mostly meet, metal is a lot closer to folk/traditional music in many of the elements it chooses to work with, and therefore, the musical way in which it presents them, as seen in 1349’s convenient bullet points.
It’s because of this that metal will never be “academic,” and that’s a good thing! It’s also part of the explanation for its continued appeal over a 40-plus year span (I’m sure many young kids listening to Iron Maiden for the first time today are absolutely transfixed), a fate most popular styles cannot boast of.
Wagner or GTFO
I got a lot out of 1349’s post as well but here is something to think about. Traditional/folk music is (or, was, I should say) based on a few things that are antithetically (my sincerest apologies if I made that word up) related to metal; simple melodic patterns that anyone can copy and themes that anyone can identify with (my girl is a slut, I like to get drunk, and so forth). Metal, especially of the extreme variety (death and black), is, musically speaking very much the opposite of folk music. The melodies are discordant and the compositions are totally idiosyncratic (meaning that no one else should be able to come up with them and copy your style). The lyrical themes are difficult for the layperson to identify with (“life may be fun but you’re inevetably going to be pulverized by maggots and mold”).
Am I completely wrong regarding folk music? The type of folk music I’m thinking of is American so I see how I am likely missing your whole comparison if you’re talking about folk music from older times and older countries.
I definitely see your point but folk music, like metal, is a wide spectrum. There’s your songs about drinking and ribaldry in all kinds of traditions, but sometimes that’s the kind of stuff great art can be mad from, think of the Canterbury Tales, or early W.A.S.P and Accept (I know some people around here won’t think they’re legitimate heavy metal but in my book they certainly are.) Kept within just bounds these things are part of the balanced life of a community and denying them entirely is a bit silly.
There’s also types of metal. “Simple melodic patterns that anyone can copy,” this definitely doesn’t apply to Morbid Angel, but it applies to Iron Maiden, Candlemass, even Darkthrone and Summoning. As a matter of fact I think the connection to folk music is most strongly felt in traditional heavy metal and certain strains of black metal, with death metal perhaps being where the connection is most tenuous.
The lyrical themes of mortality and transience are certainly difficult for many modern people to identify with, but to the pre-Freudian and religious mind they were an omnipresent reality. Metal’s imagery of demons, corpses, howling wolves and winds would not be out of place in many a folk tradition.
None of this however is to undermine the validity of your point, nor to diminish the reality and importance of metal’s uniqueness, but simply to offer another perspective in our attempt to understand this art form that we love and hopefully make some great metal so that the tradition may live on.
I think the best thing I can do is share some folk music, so here goes, I hope you enjoy!:
Spanish ballad about the bold, valiant and very heavy metal historical figure, El Cid Campeador (note the chord progression, straight out of Manowar!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i9kUj7Kg1c
Portuguese fado:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUBuwn33QY
Irish folk song glorifying those who choose action and battle, manhood and bravery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zBlHlnR4Y
A Scottish folk song, sung from the perspective of a man about to die:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD9ue-I-WVM
A modern version of a beautiful Auvergnat song about a lonely hermit (“The moon-man”):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYW4Wx7sK3o
The list could go on, but I’d rather close with what, to me, is metal’s ultimate triumph thus far, which may help illustrate the connection I see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G90ngH2anxQ
Notice that i said “traditional ritual music”, not just any traditional music.
Because yes, there are non-ritual traditional songs and instrumental music. The latter often deal with themes like “i like to get drunk”, “i want that girl but she doesn’t want me” etc. Yet even non-ritual music shares a number of the bullet points above with metal!
And yes, as Dionysus said, obviously there are simple metal songs and there are more complex ones. And more important is that complexity doesn’t matter (well, unless it destroys the very concept of metal in a given piece).
I’d say the likes of Darkthrone, Slayer, Immolation, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Mercyful fate have a different approach. Their primary goal is to make songs that “work” (are good, beautiful, quality, proper), not songs that “are unique”.
“We’re basically British heavy metal and punk,” – remember who said this?
“Our mission is to continue the life to the same type of riffs that Celtic Frost played,” – remember?
Another thing needs to be said.
Metal doesn’t SOUND much like traditional music, BUT it shares some principles with it. Their presence is not apparent but they work.
Also, traditional ritual music isn’t limited to rural/Pagan. It can also be christian/church music.
Parallel fifths, fourths and octaves – these are from early christian music and also some semi-christian spiritual rural music of late Medieval / Modern times.
Finally, i’ll give some examples, too.
These are traditional ritual songs from my region.
You can notice that they are more like simple mantras than songs.
“Hooves clattered and rumbled in the yard”
(Belarusian wedding song, sung by the Guda group in 2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhPGiQhhsrQ
The song should be, obviously, sung at weddings. Its text basically depicts an episode in the wedding process.
“Girls were making merry in the street”
(Belarusian spring song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0s79FI6L3Q
A song that should be sung at the ritual of “Calling the spring”.
The text metaphorically refers to Spring as a woman whose jealous husband doesn’t let her go out.
Quite a discordant (and disturbing) tune, i’d say.
“700 young were roaming around”
(Belarusian Xmas song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fputs-8H1z8
A song from roughly the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
This is sung at Winter Solstice. The text refers to ritual activity, which i won’t describe, under your favour.
The song is rather “Southern”, “christianity-flavoured” in style, but still rural and, in fact, Pagan.
“Feeling sick…”
(Russian spring song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wyGQGbzzb8
Although this song is in a dialect of Russian, i can’t figure out what it is about because of poor recording quality. Still, it is almost 100% a ritual song, and most probably a spring one.
P.S.
Another “bullet point”:
* [metal] often hides its authors behind nicknames; sometimes even hides faces behind corpsepaint. So, the person of the author/singer/player is often of little importance.
I’d say metal’s relationships to classical and to traditional music are both important.
One of the reasons why Americans can hardly notice the latter must be that they have little to zero idea of how European ethnic music actually sounds.
Why so?
Because by the time white anglo-saxons started colonizing America, their old Pagan culture was almost completely displaced by Protestantism.
Catholicism and Orthodoxy were much more conservative than Protestantism in regard to Pagan (rural) beliefs, celebrations and art. In catholic and orthodox regions, folk music has survived better. In the USSR, where christianity was banned, rural beliefs and art had even more, shall we say, comfortable conditions. Until urbanization took its toll, of course.
Yet you can still hear archaic folk songs – ritual and non-ritual – from old villagers in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. But also probably Latvia, Lithuania.
This and the follow-up post is almost the same as my position on heavy metal. It is an expression of the folk/traditional music of european people in a popular music format. I think it should also be recognized however that metal is its own beast. Attempting to explain it in terms of the known and the past is certainly useful but can only give us a partial picture.
I mean Dionysius` posts ^___^
My fav 5’s
1. Sepultura-schizophrenia
2. Kreator – endless pain
3. Merciless- the awakening
4. Morbid angel-altars of madness
5. Slayer- show no mercy / haunting the chapel
This comment made me realize just how much I love speed/proto-death metal!
Indeed. It’s also why I immediately liked Ripper.
“I don’t care” :)
I didn’t read the entire discussion up to this point, so I apologize if I’m just recapitulating what someone else already said.
The thing about the Gamergate “issue” is that neither side is willing to actually admit what’s really going on. I find that this winds up being true of most controversies that get blown way the fuck out of proportion. The description at the beginning of the article comes pretty close to summing it up: social responsibility vs. 4chan. I think it goes a little deeper than that for the anti crowd, though. What they’re more interested in rather than some type of PC restraint and self-censorship is a medium that neatly conforms to the hugbox world they’ve already built up around themselves on places like tumblr and twitter. In other words, they want an artform and a corresponding dialogue that are a “safe space” for the feminist/leftist/LGBTQIA3.1415blahblahblah community.
It has nothing to do with sexism, homophobia, journalistic integrity, etc., it’s simply two otherwise irreconcilable views of the world that just so happen to be battling it out through debates as to why the next Pokemon game must feature a transgendered lead character to demonstrate Nintendo’s commitment to a hate-free world (and all battles should be prefaced with trigger warnings in case a wild pikachu raped the player as a child) and how no uppity bitch is gonna tell me how I can’t pwn faggots over Xbox Live.
This is why I consciously started avoiding metal overall starting in about 2009. I saw the beginnings of what we now call the SJW movement and the inevitable reaction to it coming. I knew it was going to reach into basically every subculture and medium. I had given up on trying to find new metal bands and albums by that point anyway, so it wasn’t a huge change. I think the thing that really drove it home for me was when WITTR started to get popular…it was like the explosion of all the goofy post-black shit from 1998-2004 all over again. The laudatory mainstream praise heaped upon a band that I don’t really think is any better artistically than, say, Forgotten Woods or Abyssic Hate driven mainly by their significantly more acceptable political leanings showed me where the conversation was going. WITTR et al were going to be the “safe space” that left-leaning metalheads had sought since the tide had previously turned against them.
I agree somewhat that the idea of “we” isn’t 100% applicable to metal, but I don’t know if I agree with the idea that metal in general should keep on doing what it’s always done. Not so much for the benefit of the outside world, but rather for its own survival. Individual communities and the milieu overall should make a distinction between expressing controversial opinions and being an asshole. This applies to both commentary and actual music creation; if people behave and perform poorly, well, they need to be called out for it. Everyone should consider himself accountable for his words and actions. Graveland would be an example of a band with controversial views, Arghoslent would be a band of assholes. Trusting nature is important, but as we’ve all repeatedly discovered, the cream does not always naturally rise to the top in metal.
Sorry for the novel, it’s been at least 5 years since I’ve posted anything on a DLA-affiliated website. Nice to see that it’s branched out even further and is still going strong.
Best summary so far. SJWs versus organicists. It seems to destroy genres either way, but maybe metal will avoid its own GamerGate.
I think this distinction benefits from amplification. Graveland is a black metal band with fairly typical views of the genre, just more outspoken and less encrypted in metaphor. Arghoslent on the other hand sound like a political ad for cruelty. Not surprisingly, Graveland is much better music.
Glad to have you here again.
The dichotomy SJWs vs organicists is wrong in the sense that also SJWs are an offspring of the organic proces that society is.
Empathy is a very natural, organic emotion, existing in non-human animals as well, and one that clearly has had evolutionary benefits for humanity as a species.
Yeah sure degeneration and entropic collapse is naturally/organically occurring, only that doesn’t mean anything, and it certainly doesn’t make it anything to aspire to. If this should happen to be the way of the times (at the current time – in this current era) so be it! But I’ll fight to the bitter end rather than lower myself in submission to this process. Come on BB, you’re a smart guy why don’t you just try and see things my way for once?
The main problem of today’s world isn’t the rise of SJWs, nor moral degeneration, nor too much empathy for the weak.
The main problem is that our species is too successful. It is not a moral problem, but a technical one. This is not only a problem of today’s world, but of course, today the problem has reached a global scale and never before seen scale. Overpopulation and depletion of natural resources have destroyed numerous civilizations in the past.
The solutions Brett and others advocates here and on other sites will not help one bit, since they frame things morally. They are naive (idealistic) in the sense that they will never be realized, and the organic process that human society is will continue to develop otherwise, also after a possible cataclysm of this particular society. Wake up, and stop the wishful thinking, Platonic reverie and dreams of being the unacknowledged son of some primeval King genetically favored with a überhealthy dose of Vir.
Sleeping, waking up, falling back asleep. Watching other sleepyheads wake up:) What a day! At 0000hrs überpotent test substance VIR-619er is carefully divided into a series of lines that make up a symbol of the algiz rune, and no sooner could the deluded hessian contemplate the absurdity of the concept of reality being no more than one of many ‘realities’ or ‘situational reality’ (seemingly, according to how well an individual argues about what indeed he sees it as) than the evil smile of oh-so righteous wrongness ripped its way across his face. And though he lamented the inability of anyone to meet halfway on anything anymore, all that could really be fathomed at this point in his knuckleheaded head was just how lucky he felt to still be able to feel fuzzy after all these years. Thus he asked himself: “Am I some kind of ‘trollgod’? or just the last living non-autist? I mean, who am I to say?”
lol BB, if you were a SJW yourself I don’t think you’d ever really realize either. Still I don’t hold that against you. Just like I’d never realise I even had morals until others pointed it out, it’s something I hadn’t considered but I will nonetheless take their word for it ;)
That’s really well written, thanks, I enjoyed that.
More on the topic: there is a difference between the private, where morals are important, and the public: trying to fix society, where people will never agree on morals, and hence whatever morally framed fix won’t work – unless through violence and oppression, which of course aren’t stable solutions.
Am I a SJW? Depends on your definition of social justice. Seems to me that neo-paleo-conservatives etc are SJWers too, given all their warrioring for what they feel is a just society.
“The metal community is supposed to be a place where misfits and outcasts can find shelter in the face of that intolerance.”
Totally disagree. One should be able to pass for a perfect citizen if he wants to join the heavy metal underground (instead of standing back in the shadows, as some of us prefer to do). Why seek acceptance when all human beings are fundamentally intolerable anyway? It doesn’t make sense.